< Continued from page 3

Updated June 02, 2014.

So why is this important?

It just so happens that the muscles that work to allow space in the chest and torso for the lungs to be able to fill with air, and the muscles that push air out of the lungs, also work to hold the body upright in its many positions. That is, the breathing muscles are also posture muscles. The main breathing/posture muscles are:

• diaphram
• abdominals
• intercostals - sets of muscles that crisscross and are located in between ribs

There are other breathing muscles, but using these exclusively tend to impair both posture and breathing, rather than enhance them, so I won't mention them here!